Jordan Davis' father wants 'Stand Your Ground' repealed

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- "I never dreamt being that, I'm 59 years old, that my son would go before me ... It's so heartbreaking," said Ron Davis, the father of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, who was slain in a shooting Nov. 23.

Wearing a T-shirt with his son's picture on it that says "Kill Guns, Not Kids," Ron Davis said he is staying positive and focused four days after laying his son to rest. He is organizing a candlelight vigil that will be held at Friendship Fountain on Saturday, December 15th.

While he continues to grieve the loss of his son, he is encouraging Jordan's schoolmates and the entire community to get involved and stay positive.

"If the community stands together, they can stop some of this violence. Every day, we read about violence and at some point, we have to take a stand and say 'I don't want to read about it anymore.' I want it to stop happening and that's what my job on earth is to do," Davis said.

His focus now: changing the laws to make it illegal to carry guns in public and getting Florida's "Stand Your Ground" Law repealed. The law allows the use of deadly force if someone fears death or great bodily harm.

"It's too much gray area," Davis said. "I want that taken out of the law books. I know that's an uphill battle. That's OK. I'm a fighter, so I'll fight to have that law taken out of the state of Florida and once it is taken out of the state of Florida, we will go to other states and get that out of other states also."

17-year-old Jordan Davis was shot on Black Friday just after 7:30 p.m. at a Gate gas station on Southside Boulevard while he sat in a car with three friends. Police say 45-year-old Michael Dunn, who is charged with his murder and remains behind bars, got into an argument with the teens over their loud music. Jordan's death has made news around the nation and while many say it was a racial hate crime, Davis disagrees.

"I just think if there were Irish kids or Italian kids in the car, it really didn't matter," Ron Davis said. "This was a crime of anger, and there was handgun available for him to use. For him to even just pick up a handgun and point it at teenagers, just to point it would be so outrageous. Let alone firing eight shots or more at teenagers that were trying to get away from him at that point, so I believe it was a crime of having the availability of a handgun."

Dunn's attorney Robin Lemonidis claims her client saw one of the teens flash a shotgun and said he fired because he felt threatened for his life. Police say Jordan and his friends were not armed. While Davis said he doesn't want revenge, he does want answers.

"I just want to stand face-to-face with him and have him tell me the real reason, without his lawyers, without the cameras, without microphones or anything, just tell me between me and him what was the reason in his mind he felt he had to shoot my son and take my son's life," Davis said. "I want him to tell me that. Anything else that goes on as far as this case, that's up to the authorities and the final authority is God. That's the final authority and he's going to realize that."

Many have drawn comparisons of Jordan Davis' case to the Trayvon Martin case, another 17-year-old shot to death in Florida earlier this year.

Davis said while he thinks the cases are very different, he has been in touch with Trayvon's father.

"He texted his prayers and his condolences to me and I texted him back and said 'perhaps our children because they were around the same age they are probably forever linked together,'" Davis said. "I said 'the situation is different but I understand how people are linking the guys,' and they actually kind of look like each other if you really look at them but how it's linked together and I gave him the condolences of my family and I'm going to keep up with his case also."

While Davis now only has memories and pictures of his son, he wants to make sure Jordan is never forgotten.

"I'm going to do something that brings my child the love and the respect that he deserves and that's the legacy he is going to leave is that he did something to unite and to bring about community activism. Everybody is going to be active in this, you know. Not just let this happen to our community," Ron Davis said.